Family Learning are running a summer camp for parents and their children between the 27th and the 29th of July 2015. The event at Horton Community Farm in Bradford, invites you to experience the ‘Beauty of the Wild On Your Doorstep’. Learners will be be cooking on a campfire and working on a farm, amongst other activities!

For more details contact Rachel at Family Learning on 01274 385521 or 07582 103459. Alternatively, e mail her at Rachel.twort@bradford.gov.uk

This article is abridged and taken from our current newsletter. The original article is written by Family Learning Tutor, Laura Judge.

I negotiated my way across London to attend the NIACE Citizens’ Curriculum: A new agenda for Government, on 20 May 2015 after a 5am start. Arriving at Central Hall Westminster, with 15 minutes to spare, felt like something of an achievement!

The morning session was in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal, patron of NIACE, who spoke passionately about the importance of literacy, numeracy and particularly digital skills being available to all. She listened to a pilot showcase then personally met and chatted to some of the learners who had benefitted from the scheme. Over coffee I discussed our “Frozen” project and outlined the aims and outcomes that our learners’ achieved. People were genuinely amazed and intrigued about how we achieved what we had set out to do in just 16 hours. The words that kept recurring again and again in feedback were “confidence” and “self esteem” – the very essence that underpins any self development and actualisation.

For me, the most inspirational part of the day was when two ladies from the Wirral spoke about their experiences of the Citizens’ Curriculum. Both brought up in the care system, with chaotic lifestyles they had missed out on a standard education and one of them had fallen into a situation where alcohol heavily influenced her life, leading to crime and a custodial sentence. Whilst the other had mild learning difficulties which were not picked up, thus limiting her progress. It was only in middle age, and with the help of FE that they were able to turn their lives around, improve self esteem and embark on a learning programme. To hear them speak eloquently about the benefits of education in later life was truly uplifting.

Sixty seven years ago today, migration was still in the news. However, the event that started the debate in June 1948, was the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush. The boat, which docked at Tilbury Harbour in Essex, carried some 492 migrants, mostly Jamaican and Trinidadian men, who had fought in the war. They came on the invitation of the British government. Workers then came from other West Indian islands, over the next 14 years, which helped to rebuild the UK after the Second World War, forever changing the social history of the UK. These migrants were known as the ‘Windrush generation’.

Many from Jamaica as well as Dominica, settled in Bradford primarily in the Heaton and West Bowling areas of the city. They worked in the mills and factories of Bradford. Many also worked in the city’s hospitals as well as the railways. It was estimated by 1961, some 170,000 West Indians lived in the UK.

The First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama, made a historic trip to a school in London’s East End yesterday, with a simple message – ‘Education is the key to success’.

Her triumphant visit to the Mulberry School For Girls, in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, where the majority of the students are of Bangladeshi origin, featured an emotional speech, where she spoke about her own upbringing on the tough streets of South Chicago. Her parents, she said, encouraged her to work hard. Tower Hamlets is one of the poorest boroughs in London.

The wife of the 44th president of the United States was promoting her ‘Let Girls Learn’ initiative, which aims to encourage educational access for girls, in the developing world.

It is that time of year again and our new Family Learning Service prospectus for 2015-2016 is now available (click on picture). We hope that you are keen to book in courses for the new academic year.

We have made a number of changes to the courses on offer this year and hopefully there will be something for everyone, so please take the time to study the new prospectus and make your choices early.

The vast majority of courses continue to be available free of charge as long as learners meet the eligibility criteria for our funding (as outlined on page 7 of the prospectus). We have also introduced a pricing structure allowing schools to invest in Family Learning via the pupil premium for those parents and carers who may have previously been excluded due to our funding restrictions.

The Family Learning team look forward to working with you again in the new school year and we hope 2015-2016 will be successful and enjoyable for us all. We look forward to receiving your application form.

Updated warnings for families and children have been released on so called ‘Sexting’, where explicit pictures are sent between children /teenagers via social media. Child protection officers say that it is on the rise, with one case being investigated each day in the UK according to the the National Crime Agency. It is claimed that sending explicit or nude pictures amongst teenagers happens more frequently and at a younger age, than was once thought.

Once pictures are on the internet, they can be shown permanently.

Childline, The Think u Know website, together with the Child Exploitation Online and Protection Service (CEOPS) have updated their advice about ‘Sexting’.

We’ll launch it at the beginning of next week, rather than at the end of this one. This also gives us the opportunity to get it right, first time. So Monday afternoon it will be here, in all its glory – promise!

The Family Learning Service aims to support and develop positive relationships between mums, dads, carers and their children, as well as between schools and centres that we serve.

‘Research shows that Family Learning could increase the overall level of childrens development by as much as 15 percentage points for those from disadvantaged groups’ – NIACE

The Family Leaning Service celebrated exam success with learners this autumn. Seventy learners, from venues across the Bradford district, came together in Manningham to collect awards presented this year by Imran Hafeez, the manager of the Bradford Literacy Hub.Learners were also inspired by Imran’s moving and thought provoking poetry. Additionally, they made historical jigsaws, created their own rap songs

and dressed in period costumes in keeping with the theme of ‘Learning from the Past’.